Harry's Kingfisher

Harry sat perched on the handrails of his narrowboat fishing. His
boat, the Kingfisher, was tied to the far side, to keep out of the dog
walkers way. But the 50 or so men clinging to Roach Poles were managing
to block the towpath beautifully without him. He watched out of the
corner of his eye, a woman pushing a buggy having to wait while a roach
pole git fumbled about getting a fish off his hook. She had to wait at
everyone she met. Harry couldn't understand why they used roach poles
on the canals. "Those rods are far to long." He told himself as he
heaved himself onto the gunwale and inside the cabin to check his
breakfast. He came out a few minutes later with a slightly burnt bacon
and egg butty and a cup of tea. The Fisherman opposite Harry stared at
him hungryly. Harry teased him even more by licking the yolk off his
fingers when he had finished. He checked to see if there was still
bread on his hook. Before he put the line back in the water, he poured
the remains of his tea(He had used tea leaves without a strainer) on
top of the Fisherman's float. "Oh, sorry." Harry apologised to the
Angler. "That's ok." He replied. He lifted the pole to see if his
maggots had been poisoned by the brown cloudy liquid. The tip of the
rod scrapped Harry's paint and nearly poked his eye out. "God knows how
he can see his maggots from that distance." Harry mumbled. He glanced
at his watch. Ten o clock. He went inside again and switched his radio
on to listen to the Archers Omnibus. He turned up the volume so he
could hear it outside. So the Fisherman could hear it aswell. The
Angler shot some maggots at the float to tempt the fish or to kept the
one on the hook from being lonely. But he aimed too high and hit
Harry's leg. "Right! That does it!" Harry went in to use the toilet. He
washed his hands afterwards and as he watched the water pour out of the
hole in the side of the boat on top of the float, he decided to wash
the dishes. When he had finished and was sure he had washed the
Angler's float spotless and frightened off any nearby fish, he made
another cup of tea and went back outside. But the Fishermen were all
packing up. When the weighing ceremony began, Harry was pleased to see
that his Fisherman hadn't caught anything. When they had all gone,
Harry sighed. "Peace at last." He felt something tug at his rod. He
reeled it in and smiled as he carefully took the hook out. "One nil to
me." He threw the fish back in the water. But a blur of blue light
flashed past a couple of inches above the water and caught the fish.
The bird landed in a branch overhanging the water. "Have a good feast,
mate." He said to the Kingfisher.Copyright Jax Ferguson.